losing daylight
by chasedintothewoodsbyarapist
Summary: Naruto is a wrestler with state potential with almost no friends. Ino is a cheerleader, and one of the hottest and most popular girls in school. What happens when these two blondes meet?AU i dont own naruto. naruino. I didnt like the 8th ch. so i redid it
1. Dontcha

"Coach, I can't do this any more" panted Chouji, after running 7 laps around the school's campus.

"Come on Chouji, its just 5 more laps… are you telling me you can't run anymore?" asked the coach, who was obviously annoyed by his wrestler's lack of endurance while running.

"Sir, no offence, but I'm in heavy weights, I don't need to slim down or watch my weight… why aren't you yelling at shikamaru? He hasn't moved all practice! He just lays there watching the clouds while Lee and I are running our asses off for you. That doesn't seem very fair to me, sir" replied Chouji, pointing at the skinny brown haired boy with the pineapple-like ponytail.

"Coach, he's actually sleeping now! How can you not be mad at him?! At least make him run extra laps or do some wall sits or something!" after Chouji finished yelling, he realized that he had raised his voice to his coach… and everyone who knew coach Hatake knew that raising your voice to him was like wearing a bacon collar in a lion's den. Not a very good idea.

"Son, are you telling me off for who I go harder on than others? You think I'm being unfair by letting a wrestler who has kept his weight down and his grades up take a rest, while you, who do the opposite, run? You don't hear Lee complaining, do you?" questioned the coach. His voice was calm, but Chouji could feel the anger in it.

Lee had heard his name in a conversation and decided he wanted to see what was going on.

"Kakashi, coach sir! I overheard you speaking my name! I have run all 12 of my laps, and have cleaned the mats, because I want to be the best that I could be, so I can keep my youthful flame alive!" screamed Lee, even though Kakashi and Chouji were less then three feet away.

"Sir, as you can see" piped Chouji, after he could hear again after Lee's speech."He's not normal, I mean just look at him, he's fucking crazy! He runs outside of practice, and he always talks about his youthful flame! You could tell him to eat a shoe and he would do it with a smile on his face."

"Look, Chouji, practice is over, wake Shikamaru up, get Lee and go home… oh yeah, and ask Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba why they've felt it necessary to skip my practice two days in a row if you would. Thank you and see you tomorrow."


	2. tomorrow goes away

"Man, am I glad we didn't go to practice today! Kakashi would probably have us running laps for ditching yesterday too… so…. Where are we going again?" asked the blonde spiky haired teen.

"My God, Naruto, you're an idiot. We're going to Sakura's house, because Hinata, Temari, and Ino were gonna be there." replied the boy wearing a parka and a little dog sticking out of his hood, under his chin. "Isn't that right Akamaru? He's really excited to see Hinata, he loves her."

"Maybe we shouldn't have left Shikamaru at practice, I mean, he hasn't seen Temari in forever, with her moving to east Konoha last year, he was pretty torn up, and he still doesn't have his license, the poor bastard." Said the raven haired boy, who was driving the car. He was swerving lane to lane, blowing by all of the drivers who unfortunately decided to drive the speed limit while on the same road as Sasuke Uchiha.

As they sped down the road in Sasuke's Lotus exige, darting around the Hyundais and KIAs, Naruto thought about how good it was to have rich friends with fancy cars and big houses, where he could stay when he didn't want to go home. He lived alone, with his parents being dead, but Sasuke's family was as much of a family as he had ever known, and he was perfectly fine with that.

While they were driving, Naruto noticed something on the side of the street. "Sasuke! Stop the car!" When Naruto screamed, Sasuke slammed on the brakes, and the car skidded to a halt.

"I swear to God, Naruto, if this isn't good, I'll fucking stab you."

"Oh, this is good. They've got free ramen at Irachaku ramen! We've gotta go in!"

As before he finished his sentence, Naruto was running to the little ramen stand on the side of the street. The others decided to stay in the car, they didn't like ramen that much, and they all had to worry about making weight for their next meet. Naruto on the other hand, could give a rat's ass what he weighed, he still somehow got first in all of the meets he had been in so far, and despite the fact that he was the only one who didn't watch what they ate, he was in the best shape. Minutes later, a depressed looking Naruto sulked back to the car, a stray ramen noodle in his hair

"What happened to you?" questioned Kiba, though he was afraid of the answer he would get.

"What, oh this?" asked Naruto as he pulled the noodle out of his hair and then plopped it into his mouth. "They said I could only have 5 free bowls, and I was still hungry at the end of my fifth one, so I kinda stole someone else's… y'know, I'm kinda surprised you didn't hear the screaming, I thought I was being pretty loud when the old lady hit me with her purse… which apparently she keeps a piece of lead in, from what she said." When Naruto said this, the others noticed a lump about the size of a golf ball coming from the left side of his head.

"Well Naruto, I was going to beat you up in some humiliating way for making us stop so you could get ramen, but it seems a little innocent lady has done the job for me… well done old lady"

Kiba laughed at this, but Naruto just sat there looking irritated, not wanting to say anything else that sounded stupid. About 7 minutes later, Sasuke pulled into a driveway, and Naruto seemed to be the only one who didn't know where they were.

"For the 7th time, Naruto, we're at Sakura's house," said Kiba in a slow and agitated voice. "Do you understand what I am saying?" Naruto was silent as he followed everyone else into the house, which was surprisingly unlocked. When they walked in, a bubblegum pink haired girl and a blonde girl with four pigtails were playing guitar hero in the living room. There were also two girls sitting on the couch. The dark haired girl sitting on the left was staring at the TV screen as if it was going to tell her something. The blonde girl next to her had her hair down, and it was very long, almost down to her waist.

'Hey that blonde one on the couch is pretty hot… I've got an idea'


	3. when they day met the night

"Dibs" came the voice of the obnoxious blonde boy pointing at her from the doorway

"Excuse me?" replied the girl he was pointing at. When she looked at him, she noticed that he was dressed in nothing but orange and black, which was very… peculiar, if not down right weird.

"I called dibs on you. You're mine. Standard dibs protocol." Kiba couldn't help it. He burst out laughing as hard as he could. Akamaru jumped out of his parka and onto Hinata's lap. As he was rolling around the floor, Sasuke walked back in to the living room from the kitchen.

"So I see you met Naruto" said Sasuke, as he was seriously wondering why he decided to bring the idiot along with him. Realizing what just happened; Ino looked at the one called Naruto.

"Did you just call 'dibs' on me? You can't just call dibs on a person! Are you retarded?" She questioned in an angry yet strangely soft voice.

"No," replied Naruto, "I'm not retarded. I just don't want any of these jerks to ask you out before I did, so, wanna go out some time?"

'If this actually works, I'll eat my shirt' was the only thought going through the six people who weren't involved in the conversation's minds. Naruto was holding his breath, waiting for the answer, hoping that his idiotic move had actually worked on her. There was about a minute and a half of awkward silence, and then, against all odds, the words "Yeah, why not?" came from Ino.

"Awesome! So when's good for…. Wait, why are you guys all eating your shirts?" Now that the little moment of excitement was over, Sakura and Temari started playing guitar hero again.

"So, as I was saying, when would be a good day for you?" asked Naruto over the constant strumming and guitar solos coming from the TV. He was still a little confused as to how she actually fell for the dibs thing. He'd done it about thirty times before and each time resulted in a slap in the face or a kick to the balls. But hey, why argue with a good thing, right?

"Well, pretty much every night is good for me, pretty much, but how about next Saturday? Is that good for you?"

"Yeah, sure. I should be out of my meet by then. You can come if you want."

"That sounds good, what time does it start?"

"Oh, well weigh ins start around 6 am, if you want to see that. If you don't, probably around eight thirty or nine would be good." replied Naruto.

"Well what does weigh ins mean? What do you have to do?" asked a curious Ino.

"Oh you know, just a bunch of muscular guys stripping down to their underwear… probably nothing you would want to wake up early to see…" Answered Naruto in a nonchalant voice, even though 

she could tell he was talking about him self with the way he emphasized muscular guys and how he flexed his crossed arms a little as he talked.

"Well, okay, I guess I could wake up a little early for something that important." said Ino.

"Oh, yeah, and Ino. Wear something hot. I want to be able to brag about two things after I get my gold medal." 'He did not just say that' thought Ino, who was slightly starting to have second thoughts about going out with this pompous guy, even though he was really hot… almost as good looking as her now that she got to thinking about it. It's not like I'm expecting this to go anywhere special, just a date, right? What could it hurt? Right?


	4. Boxman is my homeboy

The next morning, only one thing was going through Naruto's mind, and that was the meet next weekend. He wasn't worried about his opponents, he was worried that Ino was coming, and their first date would consist of her watching him take down guys in tights. Maybe inviting her to his first meet wasn't the best idea he could have had for a first date. He wasn't the only one thinking about next Saturday, though. In her room, Ino was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about why she said yes to the guy who called dibs on her and told her to wear something hot to his wrestling meet so he could show her off. While she was busy complaining about it, she was also wondering what she would wear.

'Should I take him seriously and wear something really slutty? Or should I just wear some sweats? I look good in both, and it'll be really early in the morning… wait… why do I give a fuck what he wants me to wear? I'm hot no matter what, if he doesn't like it, he can go fuck himself with something hard and sand-papery for all I care.' After about fifteen minutes of thinking, she looked at the clock and realized she was late. She showered, threw her clothes on, put on her make-up, and ran out the door to catch her bus to get to school.

When he got to school, Naruto went to coach Kakashi's office. He doubted the others had thought of this, but oh well. He decided that he would give Kakashi a note from his parents saying he was at the doctor's office, so he wouldn't get in trouble. He walked in to Kakashi's office and handed him the note. Kakashi read through it a couple times, and his eyes scanned it a couple more times, seeming to try to get something out of the note. As Naruto watched him read it, he saw two other notes sitting piled up. No doubt from Sasuke and Kiba. "Damn, they thought of it too. Oh well, as long as he believes it, I'm good.' Kakashi raised his head to look Naruto in the eye and chuckled softly.

"Well, Naruto… it seems you were sick last night during my practice with a head cold. Your parents signed the note as well I see. You are going to run your laps from the last three days and today and what ever kind of punishment I decide for you. See you at practice."

'How did he know? My plan was foolproof! There's no way he could have known it was a fake!' thought Naruto. And as if Kakashi had read his mind, he said,

"This note is obliviously a fake, Naruto. A first grader has better spelling than you. And you signed your parents' names, and everyone knows you don't have any. If your going to fake a note, at least make it believable, and use spell-check once and a while." 'Heh, oh yeah…. I forgot about that.' Thought a now blushing Naruto, who was now thankful there was nobody else in his coach's small office.

During lunch, Naruto noticed a familiar face a couple tables down. It was Ino, laughing with her friends. As Naruto was considering if he should go over and sit with them or not, he saw Lee running to him at a full out sprint, and just when he thought Lee would run through him, he stopped with a screech.

"Naruto! I am so pleased to hear that you are coming to practice today! I found out that coach was making you run extra laps, and I decided to keep my flame of youth alive and join you on your marvelous adventure into extreme fitness! After we run our laps, maybe we could practice some take-downs or our shots! That would be most Excellent!" screamed Lee, his voice full of excitement.

"Wow… uh, thanks Lee… I guess… I'll see you at practice."

"Okay my youthful friend! I am excited to see you there!" replied a still giddy Lee.

'Now that that's over,' thought Naruto, 'should I sit with ino or no… you have got to be kidding me…'

Before leaving, Lee decided that he wanted a high five. Looking at Naruto with his hand out, and Naruto, with his arms full with his food, realizing that Lee would not leave until he got one, reached out his arm. The second he did, his food all spilled out of his other arm. Pizza, a smoothie, and nachos were a mess, all over his jacket and his shoes.

"Oh my goodness," said Lee, "Naruto, I am so sorry! I did not know that my high five would cause you to drop your food! Oh well, though, it'll make easier for you to keep your weight! Good luck my friend!" and with that, Lee was off to unintentionally torture someone else with his words.

Ino was sitting at her table, and saw Naruto walking to his, in his usual orange sweats, black shirt, and orange jacket. Before he sat down, he looked in her direction, but before he did anything, a kid with big bushy eyebrows wearing a green under armour long sleeve turtleneck and green tights, with orange leg warmers. Did this kid even look at himself before he left his house? And if his eyebrows weren't enough, he had a shiny black bowl cut that looked ridiculous. After a minute of naruto and the weird green kid talking, Naruto reached up to return the green boy's high five. As he did, his food fell out of his arms, most of it going on his jacket, some on his shoes. She heard everyone around her laughing, and she hit her head to the table, afraid to bring it up and see what Naruto was going to do next. To her surprise, she heard him laughing, too. She looked up, and he was cracking up with everyone else, and he just sat down, like nothing happened, next to Shikamaru. After everything calmed down, she finished her food and went to her next class. It seemed like it would be another afternoon...


	5. friendship always wins

"Damn, I've got so much running today, this sucks!" groaned Naruto as he changed out of his jeans and into his practice shorts.

"Well, maybe you should have written a decent note, and remember that you don't have parents. My parents would have signed it for you just fine, man." replied Shikamaru, in his monotonous voice. Naruto knew he had a point, but whatever, its just one day of extra running and whatever else Kakashi makes him do after that. Naruto and Shikamaru always got to the locker room before practice first because they had gym last period. As they walked out of the locker room, Naruto bumped into Neji Hyuuga, Hinata's cousin.

"Watch it wrestling fag, you don't wanna be late to grabs some balls do you?" Neji said in an angry voice.

"Go play with your shafts and balls you Lacrosse playing douche bag." Replied Naruto, walking into the wrestling room with Shikamaru, and found Lee already mopping the mats, and somehow he was already changed.

"Hello, my friends! My Pre calculus teacher had a mental breakdown when Sasuke stared him down for half an hour! It was amazing! He didn't blink for a whole thirty minutes!"

"If Sasuke got out early, too, where is he?" asked a skeptic Shikamaru.

"Sasuke is with Sakura, I believe! He seemed very excited… well… as excited as Sasuke can be, to be able to see her before practice! I am very happy for him!"

Naruto and Shikamaru started stretching and practicing their shots on each other. Shikamaru was lazy, but he was smart. Once he got into a match, he was thinking at least five moves ahead of his opponent, while Naruto usually didn't even think of what he was doing a the moment.

After about 15 minutes of working on shots, Sasuke, Kiba, Chouji, and Kakashi walked into the room.

"Okay, Naruto, you can start running now. And by the way, if I didn't mention it, you're being timed. You have 20 minute for 7 laps around the school. If you can do it in that time, I'll let you skip the rest. If not… lets just say that you won't like this practice."

Naruto started running and Kakashi started the timer. 'There's no way he's gonna be able to do this' thought Kakashi. He looked at his wrestlers working their moves. Lee and Kiba were sparring, with Lee still wearing his leg warmers. Suddenly, Kiba screamed

"Ow Lee! What the fuck do you have in those things? Rocks?" Screamed Lee, his hands covering his nose.

"Actually, Kiba," replied Lee, in a strangely serious voice, "I keep weights in them. It helps me with my speed training, so I can get even faster."

"Well it hurts like a bitch on my face! Either take them off or wait for Naruto to get back, his head is probably the only thing in the world harder than those things." Said Kiba, Kakashi and Sasuke laughing at Kiba's insult. Chouji and Sasuke were sparring, also, and Shikamaru was sleeping in a chair. Typical. Kakashi looked at his timer, and saw that Naruto only had 5 minutes left to finish his laps. He seriously doubted that Naruto could do that. He looked again, four minutes, twenty three seconds left. He heard panting at the door of the wrestling room. He turned around, to see Naruto, dripping in sweat, leaning in the doorway.

"I made it, coach…" panted Naruto. "So, whats the second part of my torture?" he stood up straight and smiled his big goofy grin at his coach.

"You get to wrestle Chouji for the rest of practice. It should be fun… for us." Replied a Kakashi, who didn't seem to be paying full attention. Chouji walked up to Naruto and grinned. It wasn't every day that he got to wrestle someone half his size, and he was going to make the most of it.

"Lets do this, I can't wait." Said Chouji, walking over to Naruto.

'You gotta be shittin me, man. He's gonna EAT me! So much for seeing Ino this weekend.' Thought Naruto, who was no longer content with his punishment.

Ino was walking through the gym after cheerleading practice, and noticed a door that she had never seen on the other side of the room. It was slightly open, and Naruto was hunch over in the doorway, his shirt completely covered in sweat. 'It looks like he just sprinted around the school about seven times' She decided to walk over and talk to him, but before she got there, he walked in. The door stayed open, so she decided to see what was going on in the wrestling practice. When she walked in, she saw Naruto face to face with a boy about three times the size of himself, and they started to wrestle. Ino had no idea what was going on, but she could tell Naruto was struggling, but seemed to be holding his own. The fat boy moved behind Naruto and flipped him over by his arm. Naruto then stood up and backed away two steps.

"C'mon, Chouji, is that the best you got? This is supposed to be punishment for me, bring it tubby." This obviously got Chouji mad, because he stood up and took tackled Naruto to the ground. She didn't know anything about wrestling, but she could tell that was not supposed to happen. Ino figured that Naruto wouldn't be able to stand after that tackle that looked like Chouji was taking out a quarterback, but Naruto just stood up and chuckled.

'How the hell?' thought Chouji. "How can he still stand after that?' Ino looked at her watch, almost five PM. The practice can't go on for much longer.

When the clock hit 5, Kakashi rounded up the team and told them to weigh themselves then get out and go home.

Naruto had his clothes off before anyone. Ino blushed and looked away. 'Well, maybe just a look'. She looked into the room and saw five guys with six packs in a line. And at the end of the line was something that she never wanted to see again. At first, she thought it was a massive blob, but then she realized it was the guy Naruto had to wrestle. His body was just sad. He looked like he had never worked out in his life. He was so fat it was disgusting. After everyone had weighed themselves, they put their clothes back on and left the room. Ino decided she had better leave before they saw her, so she went away from the room as fast as she could. Unfortunately for her, Lee, the green boy, saw her.

"Hello, miss, how are you today? I hope you had a good day!" When he said this, all of the others piled out of the room to see who Lee was talking to.

"Ino?" said Naruto, "You just couldn't help getting a look at me, could you? I thought you'd at least wait until Saturday morning, but, if you want me to, I'll take off my shirt again."

'That pompous little bitch, does he always have to talk about how great he is? He thinks he's fucking lucky charms with the way he always talks. Oh well… at least he was hot. We might have to change his orange and black clothes… mostly the orange.' She walked out of the gym and went home. Naruto left the locker room, with his stuff in his bag, and went home. Naruto couldn't wait until Saturday. He was going to get another gold medal, and Ino was coming to watch him beat the competition to a pulp. It was going to be a good weekend.


	6. take off your pants and jacket

The obnoxious buzzing noise woke Naruto up earlier than normal. It was Saturday, and meant to was the day of his wrestling meet, and his date with Ino afterwards. After having to wrestle Chouji, the rest of the week's practices were easy. Mainly just working take downs and pins. Naruto took a shower and brushed his teeth. He needed to look and smell good, but he didn't bother doing his hair, because the head gear would just mat half of it down anyway. He put on his singlet up to his waist and covered it with his shorts. He finished getting dressed and went out the door. When he got there, he noticed that he was the last one there. Sasuke and Kiba already had their weights on their arms, Chouji and Lee were waiting in line, and Shikamaru was sleeping on the floor 'Does he ever wake up?' thought Naruto, as he walked into line so he could get weighed. He got to the front of the line, and got his weight.

"Sweet! I'm in the 132's! There's no way I'm losing this one! Ino's a little late, though… maybe she slept in a little." As he walked to his team, Lee ran up to him, showing him his left arm. It had a big 113.7 on it. "Lee, are you still wearing your weights?"

"Yes I am, Naruto! I took them off to weigh in, but now they are to be straight back on me at once!" As he looked around, he saw the blonde head of hair walking towards him.

"Ino, you missed it, I already put my clothes back on." When she got close enough for him to see her clothes through the crowd, he noticed that she was just wearing a pair of grey sweatpants, and a white sleep shirt, with flip-flops. "What the hell? Did you even change before you came here?"

"Excuse me? Are you saying you think I don't look good? Do you think I'm ugly now that I'm not wearing something slutty?" if looks could kill, Naruto would be lying on the ground with knives sticking out of his chest in a pool of blood.

Naruto realized that what he had said was wrong, "No, not at all! You look great… just not what I expected." Hoping that had gotten him out of trouble.

"Whatever… you'd better get a gold medal today, I didn't accept to go out with a loser. You hear me?" Replied Ino. Naruto couldn't tell if she was joking around or if she was serious.

"You don't have to worry about that, Ino. And hey, maybe I'll let you wear my medal when I get it. You can hang here until the meet starts, but then you have to sit in the bleachers."

A voice coming from the speakers announced that the brackets were up and the wrestling would start soon. Everyone went to their weights' brackets, Naruto and Kiba going to the same one.

"Alright!" exclaimed Kiba, "I'm against Naruto first! This should be a good match." Naruto thought Kiba was a little too excited about wrestling him, even though he'd never lost to Kiba once in practice.

"I'm against someone named Gaara." Said Lee, his voice full of excitement. "I am looking forward to what is most likely to be a most wonderful experience!"

Shikamaru looked and his bracket and noticed that his first match was against a kid named Tayuya… Wait… isn't that a girl's name? Oh well, it can't be. Girls don't wrestle.

"Let's get this over with." Was the only thing he said.

Sasuke was against some guy named Haku, and Chouji was against Jirobo. He'd wrestled him before, and it was a close match, but Jirobo came out on top in the last period. With everyone ready for 

their matches, it was time to get this party started. Sasuke was the first match on his mat. He put his singlet over his shoulders and put on his green ankle band and got set. Haku, his opponent, walked into the ring also. At first look, Sasuke could have sworn that this guy was a chick. But he didn't have time to think about it. They shook hands and the match started.

"Sasuke looks like he's having trouble." Said Chouji, as Sasuke got taken down by Haku. He tried to get back up, but Haku already had him in a ball and chain, and flipped him over on his back. When Sasuke hit the ground, all of the air in his lungs left him. He felt like he was going to choke on his own tongue. He had never hit the mat that hard in his life. As he tried to catch his breath, he felt a pressure on his chest. Haku was on him, pulling his arm away from him, so he couldn't get up. Sasuke took his left leg, and threw it over himself and flipped over Haku. The ref raised his hand

"One, green, reversal." The score was now 6 to 1, Haku with two takedowns and a near-fall. Sasuke twisted his body so his legs were on Haku's and he folded him in half. His knees were past his ears, and haku was stuck in a pin.

"Ha, he looks like he was sucking his own dick! That's fucking hilarious! That's just like Sasuke, to put the mother fucker in a spadel." Laughed Kiba. The ref slapped the mat, indicating a pin. They stood up, and the ref raised Sasuke's arm after Haku shook hands with him. He walked back and sat down by Shikamaru, who shook his hand and congratulated him, but didn't seem to really care. The voice on the speaker announced the match between Lee and Gaara was going to start soon. Lee jumped up immediately and put his singlet on his shoulders. As he walked into the ring, the ref told him that he couldn't wear his leg warmers in the match.

"Oh, thank you, sir! I forgot I was wearing them! I will remove them immediately!" and with that he took off his leg warmers, revealing his leg weights.

'So that's what's under his legwarmers' thought Ino. 'I wonder how much they weigh, maybe five or ten pounds eac…' her thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash. Lee had taken off his weights and dropped them by the mats. 'There's no way that came from the weights, how much could they possibly weigh!? He ran with these on, and he was pretty fast anyway, but this is ridiculous!' She went down to see how much they weighed, she nearly fainted when she saw the number on each weight.

"100 pounds!? How can he run with that on each leg? Exactly what is this kid?" she looked at him and he was jumping what had to be more than a yard off of the ground easily. When she looked at his opponent, she wasn't impressed though. He was a skinny red haired boy with black rings around his eyes that looked like he hadn't slept for a week. Ino walked back to the bleachers and sat next to Naruto. He tried to but an arm around her, but she rejected him, making Chouji snicker. He looked back and flipped him off, and being as unsubtle as he was, the mother next to Chouji with her 4 year old saw and started to tell Naruto off. When she finished yelling at him for his crude behavior, he looked back to see that Lee's match was already over. 'Man, Lee works fast, he totally raped that guy from the left. But when the referee 1raised the winner's hand, it wasn't Lee's. It was the red haired boy. Lee put on his weights and went outside. Naruto followed him and found him doing pull ups at a near by park.

"Lee, what are you doing? How'd you lose? Why are you doing pull ups?" asked Naruto, rapid-fire.

"To answer your questions, in order," Replied a sad Lee, "I'm doing pull ups, I got beat, and I promised myself that if I didn't win the match that I would do five hundred pull ups. If you would, I 

would appreciate it if you left me alone right now." With that, Naruto left his friend to cope with a loss. When he got back in, Shikamaru was being praised for winning his match against Tayuya.

"It's not like I didn't expect it to be easy. I was wrestling a girl, and we guys are physically stronger than girls." Stated Shikamaru in his bored, monotonous voice.

"You're not being serious are you? You really think that girls are weaker than boys? Are you that narrow minded?" Shouted Ino, who was furious about what the "genius" had said.

"Yes I am. Yes I do. Yes I am." Replied Shikamaru, once again sounding bored at having to talk to the obnoxious blonde girl. With her hanging around, he seemed to notice that she was like a girl version of Naruto, except maybe slightly smarter. Maybe. Ino continued to reprimand him about how sexist he was, and Naruto and Kiba got called up for their match. Naruto wanted to end it quick, so he'd have more time to show it off before he got his medal. The second the match started, Naruto dove down and dug his shoulder into Kiba's shin. Kiba, being very flexible, moved so he was not on his shoulders, but on his knees. Naruto pulled his arm in and flipped Kiba over him. He then locked his legs with Kiba, so he couldn't move them, and he held him down in a pin. The referee called and Naruto won. When they finished walking back to the bleachers, they found out that Chouji's match was happening at the same time as theirs', two mats over. He came back with a satisfied look on his face.

"Hey guys, I beat him! I finally caught him in a guillotine in the third period."

With that, Naruto walked to Ino and gave her a hug. She returned it half-heartedly. She still seemed a little mad at Naruto for his comment about her clothes, but oh well. 'I'll just give her my medal and hope she doesn't stay mad.'

"Naruto, where are you taking me after this? You never did tell me, you know." asked Ino, who was hoping for something other than ramen, which she hated. Naruto looked at her,

"I was going to let you pick, if that's okay with you." This surprised her, not just because he didn't say a ramen place, but because he actually didn't say something completely obnoxious, like every other time he'd answered her questions. Maybe he's not as bad as she thought. Just maybe.


	7. almost easy

The Referee raised his hand after the hard match. Both of the wrestlers had fought hard, but the blonde boy won in the end with a crucifix. Not the prettiest one he'd ever seen, but it got the job done. He didn't seem as excited about the first place he just won, but more on giving the blonde haired girl in the stands thumbs up from the mat.

After everything finished, Naruto and Shikamaru both took gold in their brackets. Sasuke came in a close second to a boy named Sasori. He wasn't pinned, but he got beat in points by two, just by a lousy takedown. Sasuke did not take losing well, almost as bad as Lee did, but he seemed to calm down after a couple minutes. Naruto and Shikamaru got their gold medals, and Sasuke got his silver. When he passed a trashcan, he promptly threw it away. There was no need for him to remember his loss, just a waste of his mind space. Shikamaru put his medal in his bag and walked away from the group, no doubt to get some sleep, like he always did. When Naruto got back to the group, he walked straight to Ino and put the medal around her neck.

"I always keep my promises." He whispered into her ear as he slid it on. After they left the meet, Naruto took Ino to her restaurant of choice, which happened to be a very fancy Italian restaurant. Naruto had never been there before, but he knew that he would need a lot of money during a date with a girl like Ino, so he came prepared. He made sure he had enough money to buy her anything she could possibly eat, and by the looks of her figure, that wasn't going to be that terribly much. When they walked in, Naruto opened the door for Ino, and there was no sarcastic comment or joke.

'He's really trying to be serious; I can tell he's uncomfortable being somewhere this fancy, especially on a first date. But he's being an actual gentleman, maybe I should bring him places like this more often.' Though Ino as he pulled out her chair for her to sit, also. 'I never would expect this from an idiot like naruto, but hey, he surprises everyone at one time or another.' When she sat down, she noticed a little clank on her chest, and realized that she was still wearing Naruto's medal

"Naruto, do you want this medal back tonight or can I give it back later?" asked Ino

"You can keep it for yourself. I've got enough already, I've almost got a perfect record since 9th grade." replied Naruto in a quiet voice. He was scared that he said something wrong again, but to his surprise, Ino smiled.

"That sounds nice. I should come to more of your meets, so you can win me some more of these." She said, holding up the medal. The waiter came and they ordered their food. Naruto had regular spaghetti and meat sauce, while Ino had a shrimp salad.

'That doesn't seem very Italian to me' thought Naruto 'Oh well, whatever. I just don't want to get yelled at again, so let her do what she wants.'

As they ate, they talked about school, and their friends, and how their teachers were all Satan incarnate. After the dinner, they walked out of the restaurant. It had started to rain lightly, so Naruto and Ino hurried to his car before it started to rain hard. Naruto turned on the car, and Ino started flicking through the radio channels to find the perfect station. It was a soft rock station, and the music made Naruto want to fall asleep, but he could not, because he still had to drop Ino off, and it was starting to rain harder. Naruto looked at the clock and it read 11:47.

"Holy shit! We're so late. I hope your dad won't be too pissed at you, and I'm sorry if he is." apologized Naruto.

"Its okay, Naruto, don't worry, my dad'll be fine. How about your parents, will they be okay with you being out this late?" Naruto's head dropped and his eyes watered a little.

"No, I'm sure they won't say anything about it." Replied Naruto in what was almost an inaudible whisper. Ino, not knowing whether or not she said something wrong, decided that she shouldn't say anything else.

Ino stared out the window of the car, and thought about that night. Naruto had been an almost perfect gentleman, except for when he shouted at the waiter for not having ramen on the menu.

"I had a good time today Naruto, believe it or not. You aren't that bad of a date, and you play the gentleman role quite well if I do say so myself, and I've got pretty high standards." said Ino in a kind of proud voice. Naturo, glad the date went well, went home and fell asleep. It had been a day full of victories, in more ways than wrestling. There were only two things going through his mind on the drive home, the next day, and seeing Ino the next day. He drove into his parking spot and went into his apartment, fell onto his bed, and fell asleep before his head hit the orange and black pillows.

The next morning, Naruto opened his eyes and looked at the clock. He was feeling a little groggy, so his hearing and sight weren't that amazing, but he could hear a buzzing, and saw an eleven on his clock. He slept in. Late. He scrambled to get ready, and realized that he was all ready late, so there was no need to hurry. He shut off his alarm, got all of his things ready, ate his breakfast, and started his walk to school. When he got there, it was about lunchtime, so he went to the cafeteria. About 5 minutes after he got there, people started filing in, and Shikamaru noticed the blonde spiky hair sitting at their table already. He was sitting facing away from the table, looking half-asleep, head rolling back on his neck, staring at the ceiling tiles. He seemed to be counting them, but Shikamaru knew better. Naruto was terrible at math; he was the only junior still in Algebra 1. He worked hard to keep his D- average, and he was damn proud of it.

Shikamaru told Naruto that he wouldn't be able to practice because of him missing half of the classes for the day.

"Like I care, man… I'm not failing, and that's the only thing I'm worried about, even though I may have the worst grades in school history…" Replied Naruto, expecting Shikamaru to laugh at his pathetic attempt at the joke, but he was silent. He never did laugh when it came to grades, mainly because he was about the smartest kid in the school. Advanced everything, 4.0 GPA, Scholarships to every good college imaginable. With all of the hard work that Shikamaru did, it was a wonder that he still had time to wrestle, especially with how lazy he was.

The bell rang, and the two boys walked to their classes. Naruto to P.E, and Shikamaru to pre- calculus. As Naruto was going to P.E. he saw Ino, who was still wearing his medal around her neck. She was walking with a group of her friends, and when she saw Naruto, she waved him over to her.

"This is who gave me the medal. If you don't know, he's Naruto Uzumaki, and we're going out."

Oblivious to the dirty looks some of the girls were giving Naruto, Ino kept talking about something, but Naruto wasn't listening. He was too busy trying to make himself as small as possible. He wasn't good with not being accepted.

"Ino, you do know who that is don't you? That's dead last, the kid who's still in algebra 1, the kid who has almost no friends accept the guys on the wrestling team. He's a loser, even if he is a good 

wrestler. You must not have known any of this, since you're going out with him, but now you do, and if you know what's good for your reputation, you'd break up with him right now." Said the blonde cheerleader to her left, in a snobby I know everything voice. Naruto was trying to keep a straight face and not look sad, but it was hard, considering that everything she said was true.

"Who gives a shit if he isn't popular, he's the only guy with enough balls to actually ask me out, and he's a nice guy, if you get to know him better. So fuck off and deal with it. Besides, other than the fact that he only wears orange, which I will be changing soon, he's really cool and he's hot. Unlike some of the douche bags you guys are going out with, like Neji, that emotionless bitch. Don't look at me like that Ten-Ten, you know its true. " After her rant, Ino gave Naruto a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek and walked away. The other girls looked at Naruto like they were going to jump him, so he got out of there as fast as he could. After school, he looked for Ino. He wanted to thank her for standing up for him. He looked all over for her, but he remembered he had her number. He dialed her number and it went straight to voicemail.

"Hey there," said Ino's recording in a seductive voice. "I'm not here right now, I'm so sorry, babes. Leave a message after the beep." Ino, It's Naruto. I guess you're not there right now but I would really like to thank you for earlier. It meant a lot to me to…" He stopped. As he passed the nurse's office, he saw a long head of blonde hair lying on the bed, unconscious…

'Oh shit.'


	8. Never too late

Naruto walked into the nurse's office to see what was going on. Ino was lying on the bed, her face was bruised and she wasn't awake, but other than that, she seemed fine. In the bed across from her was a bleeding Neji. He had a large gash on his arm and a large bump on his head. Naruto put two and two together. Ten-Ten told Neji what Ino had said and got mad. Apparently, it got violent and by the looks of it, Neji lost the fight. In the middle of his thoughts, the Nurse walked in and noticed Naruto.

"Well hello, Naruto. When they first brought Neji in, I figured you would be the one coming in after him, but when they brought Ino Yamanaka in, I was surprised."

"Shizune how is Ino? Is she okay?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, she's fine, Naruto. She's asleep right now. She said something about staying up all night, so don't worry. I'm not so sure about Neji though. He took a hard hit to the head." Replied Nurse Shizune

"Ino actually hit him that hard?" questioned an astonished Naruto. He figured that Ino was tough, but damn, he needed to remember not to get in a fight with her.

"No, Naruto, I believe that was Kiba Inuzuka. He said something about hurting his knuckle on Neji's face, and thought that you might find that funny. Unfortunately he's been suspended, along with Neji, for two weeks for fighting."

'Oh well', thought Naruto. 'Ino's fine and Kiba's grades are good enough that two weeks away won't kill him. His parents won't be mad at him, because it wasn't his fault.'

Naruto went over to Ino and grabbed her hand lightly. He felt it move, and she turned around, smiling at Naruto. She got up, and hugged Naruto.

"You should have seen it; Kiba kicked his lacrosse playing ass with his own stick. He saw Neji pushing me around for what I said to Ten-Ten, and came over and hit him upside the head." Said Ino, chuckling a little as she remembered Neji's face as the stick collided with the left side of his head, and how he went down like a lead brick.

"That's wonderful and everything, but lets get you home before anyone finds out what happened. We can safe explanations until tomorrow. There's a message on your phone from me, but go ahead and delete it, because since I found you, I'll tell you in person. Thanks for sticking up for me in front of your friends, even if it meant getting a little hurt yourself." They got into his car and started driving home.

"If I was there, I wouldn't have stopped once Neji hit the ground. I'd make sure he didn't get up for a couple months." Explained Naruto, in a confident voice.

"Oh, my hero!" replied Ino sarcastically. "Do you want me to give you something for that?"

"Well," replied Naruto, "would you give me a blo-" He was interrupted by a hard slap to his right cheek. "I'll take that as a 'no' then. Can't kill a guy for trying, though, right?" Asked Naruto, with a big goofy smile on his face.

'I never noticed how blue his eyes were. I could look at them forever if I could.' Thought Ino. Before she knew it, they were back to her house. Naruto opened up her door for her, picked her up bridal style, and walked her to the door. He rang the doorbell and set Ino down on the bench on her porch. He sat next to her and waited. Out of nowhere, Ino grabbed his head and pulled him into a kiss. Their tongues wrestled for a couple seconds, until Ino's gave way and let Naruto's have dominance in her mouth.

'He's a really good kisser.' Thought Ino.

Naruto was surprised at his kissing skills. Ino wasn't complaining, so he figured he was doing a good job for his first kiss.

'She's a really good kisser' Thought Naruto, at almost the same time. About fifteen seconds into the kiss, they heard someone clearing their throat. Ino's father had come to the door, and Naruto Almost fell off of the bench.

"Daddy!" exclaimed Ino. "This is Naruto, the boy I was telling you about last night."

"Yes, I remember," replied Inoichi, "He's the boy who brought you back home at midnight, after doing God knows what around the town. I can't say I'm all that excited to meet you."

"Pleasure meeting you too, sir." Replied Naruto. 'Man! Why does everyone have to be mean to me today?! I haven't done anything wrong, but they still give me shit.' After they shook hands, Inoichi went back into his house, followed by Ino, giving Naruto another short kiss before entering. As Naruto was walking to his car, he got a text on his phone and it read

'Naru, hav a good nite, CU 2morow, 3 ino.' Naruto read through it about 9 times before replying. He just replied ' cu tomorrow, love u too.' He couldn't believe they he actually said love. They had only been on one date, and he felt like he meant it. He already felt happier than normal, and he was having trouble remembering what life was like before he asked her out. He went home and ate dinner. Ramen again. He loved the food, but it was starting to get a little old, having ramen day in and day out. He finally ended up falling asleep at about 10:30. He dreamt about Ino not accepting him after her friends told her about him, and then that Sasuke and his family hadn't helped him pay for his house, car, and phone, and then that he was jumping out of a plane, but when he pulled his parachute, a one armed midget came out and shot him. He woke up and flew up bolt upright. Those were his three biggest fears at the moment, but the last one didn't make any sense to him at all. He looked at his clock and it read one fifteen. He never did get back to sleep, because he was too scared to see the one armed midget with the gun again.

The next day at school went by like a blur. The only thing that he could remember was that he talked to Ino for a while at lunch, went to wrestling practice, ran, and went home. The exact opposite was happening for Ino.

She went to school, and for some reason, Naruto saying he loved her had her thinking. Did he really mean it, or did he just put that there to say it? She was going to talk to him about it when they talked at lunch, but it slipped from her mind when she asked Naruto why he got sad when she asked about his parents.

"My parents are dead. They died in a car crash when I was eight. The trucker wasn't paying attention and swerved onto the other side of the highway. He hit them head on and they died on impact. Sasuke's family kept me with them until I could take care of myself, and then they started paying for my apartment, my phone, and my car. I'd probably be homeless right now, but they've helped me out a lot." He didn't look too shaken by reliving his parents' death, but Ino could tell that it was hurting him inside to talk about it. She dropped it there, but she wanted to tell him it'd be all right, even though it already was. She wanted him to know that he had someone that actually cared for him. She didn't think that she could call it love like he could, but she cared for him. After their talk at lunch, nothing interesting happened. Ten-Ten came and yelled at her about what Kiba did to Neji, but she could care less about that stupid bitch.

After school, she sat in the wrestling room and watched Naruto's practice, because her cheerleading practice was cancelled because someone flooded the football field that was now being used for lacrosse. She had a guess who did it, but he was suspended. Her only other idea was Chouji, because he came in to the gym laughing just before the field was flooded. Naruto, who usually wrestled Kiba, had to practice against Lee. He wasn't that good of a wrestler, but he was fast. She could barely keep up with what he was doing, but somehow, Naruto could. Whenever Lee tried a move, Naruto got out of it and over powered him. She could see his muscles through his sweat soaked shirt. It was amazing how someone could be that ripped. After the practice, they all stripped down to their boxers to weigh in, and Ino made sure not to look at Chouji this time. Lee was so skinny that if he turned sideways he just might disappear. Shikamaru was well built, but his large pineapple ponytail had to add at least four pounds on him, with how big it was, and from what Naruto told her earlier, weight was as important to a wrestler as it was to a model. One ounce could be over their weight. Every one made the weights they were supposed to, with Chouji just under three hundred pounds, Naruto in the one thirties, Lee in the one tens, and Shikamaru in the one twenties.

'I could get some weight loss tips from Lee.' thought Ino, laughing at the thought. After they finished weighing themselves, they all walked out of the gym to a full view of the water soaked football field. There was a good seven inches of water in there, and it didn't look like it was going away soon.

"Oh well," said Chouji, "I guess they didn't find the leak. The night guy can get it." With this, he pulled out his bag of chips and started eating them. Sasuke had already gone to his car, not wanting to stay at the hell he has been imprisoned at with a four-year sentence. Lee had put his weights back on, and was now jogging home.

"Hey, Naruto, you think you could gimme a ride home? The late bus already left." Chouji asked, with his face full of chips. Naruto agreed and put Chouji in the back seat, him and Ino sitting in the front. Ino and Chouji lived less than a block from each other, so it wasn't much of a drive.

After he had dropped Ino off, their conversation once again ending with Naruto being slapped, Naruto drove home. He pulled into his parking space, and went into his apartment. On his front step, he saw a box with his name on it, in a handwriting that he recognized, but just couldn't remember who it was from. He brought it inside and cut it with a razorblade he found on the street the other day. It was orange, so he couldn't just leave it sitting there. He opened the box, with the tape now removed, and found a new pair of wrestling shoes, a new set of headgear, and a fifty-dollar bill. He was so excited about his newfound gift, be almost didn't notice the note at the bottom of the box. It read

"Naruto, your old wrestling gear was pathetic, your headgear was more tape than plastic, and your shoes had so many holes in them I saw more of your sock than those things you claim to be shoes. The rest of the guys and I decided to pitch in to buy you some new stuff, and you sure better wear it from now on. The fifty dollars is just in case you need anything else, like a nice dinner, with somebody special. If you don't understand who, then I feel sorry for you. Signed Chouji, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Kiba, and Lee." When Naruto finished reading the note, he smiled and put all of his new gear on. This was going to be a good season. He knew exactly what to do with his fifty dollars, too.

A/N, if you don't like it I'm sorry, criticism reviews are excepted, but constructive criticism is more welcome


	9. The carpal tunnel of love

Naruto threw out his old wrestling gear, and put his new gear in his gym bag. He put the fifty dollars in his wallet and shoved it quickly back in his back pocket. He decided he had some people to thank, so he took out his phone. He called everyone and thanked them repeatedly, despite the other boys telling him that it was no big deal, and that he deserved all of the stuff he got. After he finished his thank-you's, he called Ino.

On the third ring, he heard a tired hello come from the other end of the line. He didn't realize how much more excited he could get, even after receiving his gifts, but to hear her voice, even though it was a little fuzzy from his piece of shit phone, brought his mood up even a couple more notches.

"Hey, Ino, what're you doing on Friday night? Wanna go somewhere?" asked the excited blonde.

"Uh, sure Naruto, that sounds good, can I go back to sleep? I'll talk to you tomorrow, when I'll be awake enough to yell at you for waking me up in the middle of the night." replied Ino, her voice still groggy.

"That's great! Except for the yelling part… I'll talk to you tomorrow, love you b-" he stopped, mid word. 'Shit shit shit shit shit! I said it again! What the hell is wrong with me?' he mentally screamed at himself. After a silence that seemed to last forever, Ino finally said

"Well, I'm gonna go back to bed, see you tomorrow Naruto." Naruto could tell by her voice that she felt just as awkward about what he had said as he did.

'Oh well, whatever… it won't kill anyone if I go to sleep, right?' and he jumped on his back onto the soft mattress that that Sasuke's family had bought him. He pulled the orange covers over his orange and black pajamas, and fell asleep.

Ino lay down on her bed, trying to sleep, but something was keeping her up. She couldn't tell what it was, but she just couldn't sleep. There was a nagging feeling at the back of the blonde's mind that just wouldn't go away. After about fifteen minutes of wondering what it could be, she finally realized what it was. Naruto. She took out her cell phone and started a text. She deleted and rewrote it about nine times before deciding it was good enough to send. She scrolled down her names list until she found the one with hearts around it. She hit the send button and a few seconds later, Naruto's phone vibrated. The blonde boy, who had not put his phone down before he went to sleep, felt the vibrations and it woke him up. He looked at his phone, and, underneath the clock that read two AM, was a box that said one new text. He opened it up and it was from Ino. It was a fairly short message, mainly talking about how she had been happier since they had met, and how she was looking forward to Friday night. He was about to delete the message, until he saw another line of words after a couple blank lines that read

"I love you, too."

* * *

A/N- I know, I know, ridiculously short chapter, and I'm sorry if it pisses you off… I haven't updated in a while, and I thought that was an okay place to end the chapter, and stuff happened in that short time, so you cant complain about that. If you hate me now because of the shortness of this chapter, so be it. Reviews, as always, are welcome, even the bad ones.


	10. Bring 'Em Out

Naruto smiled as he slowly fell back to sleep. He didn't feel awkward about saying he loved Ino, probably because she said she returned his feelings. He was also too tired to care. When Naruto woke up the next morning, he shot upright, thinking he slept in and jumped out of his bed, running around his mess of a room trying to get ready. When he finally decided to look at his clock, he was surprised to see that he was fourteen minutes early. After a couple moments of cursing at himself he decided to just get on with what he needed to do.

Ino woke up to her alarm buzzing. She slapped the off button of the infernal clock as she slowly stepped down onto her floor. As she got out of bed, she recollected what had happened the previous evening .'I hate mornings' repeatedly went through Ino's mind as she carefully put on her makeup and did her hair in its usual ponytail, and headed downstairs into her kitchen to get some toast. Naruto was picking her up today, which made her feel kind of awkward, considering she told him that she loved him (which, if she was going to be honest, wasn't exactly true. She still didn't think she loved him, she just didn't feel like having him feel all weird about saying it to her.) As she finished eating , she had a nagging suspicion that Naruto was already there, waiting for her. She opened her door to see that her suspicion was correct. There he was, asleep in his beat up old Camaro that the Uchihas had bought for him on his sixteenth birthday. She pulled on the handle and was happy to discover that it was unlocked. Now she could wake him up in a much more pleasant manner. Climbing in, she leaned over and kissed Naruto on the cheek. He stirred a little, but stayed asleep. Hmm, maybe she should try a little harder. Moving even closer to the blonde boy, she kissed him firmly on the lips. After about ten seconds, Naruto still hadn't woken up.

'How the hell is he still asleep?' Ino wondered. She was one of the hottest girls in school, and Goddamn it, he's gonna be awake if she wants to make out with him.

"Naruto! Wake the fuck up!"

The blonde's eyes snapped open and he nearly jumped out of his skin. Slowly his gaze made its way over to his extremely angry girlfriend in the seat next to him.

"Ino, why are you yelling?" Naruto asked, confused. "You could have ju-"

He was interrupted when she leaped on him, her tongue attacking his mouth. He couldn't breathe, let alone think or talk, so he just went along with it and tried to remember what he'd done to deserve this kind of wake-up call so he could repeat it on a daily basis. For about three minutes, Ino and Naruto's tongues fought for dominance before Ino finally pulled away, laughing.

"That's why I yelled at you, now, back to business. We're gonna be late for school, and Shikamaru told me about your grades and tardies, and you can't really afford another detention," Ino said as she fixed her hair in the side mirror of the car. Naruto nodded, and drove to school with a satisfied look on his face. The two were chatting amiably when they saw Lee, walking to school. With anyone else, this would have been normal, but Lee was walking on his hands, and he was still wearing his one hundred pound leg weights

"Lee, get in! You look retarded walking on your hands."

"But Naruto, my youthful friend! If I do not walk all the way to school on my hands, how will I prove to Gai that I am worthy of his teachings?!" Lee shouted in reply.

"Gai? Wait, does he mean that creepy P.E teacher who wears the tight spandex so you can see his balls?" Ino whispered to Naruto, "He's really scary! Why would he want that guy to think he's cool?"

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but I must continue on my way on my way!" yelled Lee as he got back on his hands and kept walking. That brief moment of weirdness was the only eventful thing that occurred during their car ride, and they arrived at school relatively unscathed. Walking hand in hand to the front door, they smiled at each other happily before the mood was ruined by what they presumed to be a freshman obstructing their path. He had an odd look, not anger, but somewhere between sadness and determination.

"You're Naruto Uzumaki, right? I'm Konohamaru, but you should already know that, because I'm the best wrestler in this school! I heard you were pretty good. Since I'm a freshman, I haven't been able to see anything you've done, but I wanted to challenge you to a match after school, before your practice. My coach Mr. Ebisu is going to ref it for us. Be there, or be forever known as a chicken!" the freshman proclaimed. Naruto and Ino nearly fell over laughing at the little boy's announcement.

After a few minutes of this, the glare that the boy was fixing on the couple made it plain that he was serious. Realizing this, Naruto immediately straightened up and responded. "If this is a serious challenge, I'll be there."

With that, Konohamaru walked away with his nose in the air, "Well, that was interesting," Ino said, still giggling a little bit.

"You wanna come and watch?" Naruto offered, trying not to sound too eager. "You could take bets with the freshmen. With how this kid acts, he'll probably bring his entire team with him, so we might get some money from this."

"That's a great idea, Naruto, I'll make sure to do that." replied Ino, with a little half smile.

They continued walking down the hall, with Naruto's arm around Ino's shoulder, and her arm around Naruto's waist. When they got to the point where they would have to part ways they shared a quick kiss before heading to their separate classes and walked away from each other.

As Naruto was walking down the hall to his English class he saw Neji, walking with Ten-Ten. 'Hey, wasn't he suspended?' Naruto wondered, as he looked questioningly at the couple. But instead of asking questions like any normal human being, Naruto decided to use his prankster skills that had remained dormant since his freshman year. As Neji walked by him, Naruto brought his knuckles down on Neji's unsuspecting crotch.

"Sack tap!" the blonde knucklehead yelled as Neji collapsed on the ground. Naruto laughed, jogging away before Neji could recover. As Naruto turned the corner, he slammed into Konohamaru, who was carrying a video camera.

"Hey there! I've been videotaping you all morning since I left you, and I got what you did to that other guy on tape." exclaimed an excited Konohamaru. "I just want you to know that it's going to be on YouTube tonight, so you might want to check it out after you lose to me. Have fun!" As the short freshman was walking away, Naruto noticed a long scarf coming down his back. It was wrapping around the shrimp's legs, and so far, he hadn't noticed. Naruto held in a chuckle as a few steps later the kid fell flat on his face. Laughing out loud, Naruto turned and continued towards his English class. As he crossed the hallway he had just come from, he was thrilled to see that Neji was still on the ground, puking now. Even better, Naruto could see a few tears leaking out of the lacrosse player's eyes. Today just couldn't get any better.

For Naruto, the morning dragged on interminably. Finally, the bell rang and Naruto headed to the cafeteria for lunch. He couldn't believe how quickly his day had changed for the worst. His English teacher had assigned them a twenty-page report on Romeo and Juliet, due the next week. In Chemistry, he mixed the wrong ingredients and his experiment exploded, getting all over him. He had to spray himself down in the Emergency shower, and the water ruined his phone, which he had forgotten to take out of his pocket. Needless to say, it was a soaking wet and dispirited Naruto who sank into his seat next to Ino in the cafeteria. He was a bit surprised to see that, unlike him, his girlfriend was in a very good mood.

"Wow, looks like you just took a shower," Ino giggled as Naruto dripped on the merely grunted, looking deeply depressed. Looking concernedly at her boyfriend, Ino came to the conclusion that sadness did not suit Naruto at all. He was much more fun when he was excited about everything and talking nonstop.

"Ok, I can't take this anymore," said Ino after three minutes of watching Naruto sulk.

"What' s wrong with you?" asked Chouji. He and Shikamaru had arrived while Naruto sat sullenly staring at his meal. Ino cringed as food came flying out of Chouji's mouth and she eyed the massive portion of food in front of him with disgust.

"Jeez, Chouji, I can hear you getting fatter," said Shikamaru, in his normal bored voice. The slacker was picking at his salad in annoyance. Unfortunately, that's all he could eat if he was going to keep his weight down.

By the time the bell rang to end lunch everyone was angry. Ino was furious with Naruto, who hadn't uttered a single word. Shikamaru was angry that he had to eat a troublesome salad while everyone else had pizza and burgers and other good tasting shit, and Chouji was mad because he was still hungry. Ino felt slightly sorry for Naruto, even if she was mad. He must have had a really bad day for him to be acting like this. In an attempt to make him feel better, Ino wrapped her arms tightly around him in a hug. Unfortunately, she forgot that he was still soaking wet. And now, so was she. When she released him, Naruto looked at her gratefully, before he realized something rather embarrassing. Ino's white shirt had turned completely transparent where she had hugged the soaking boy, and her purple bra wasn't leaving much to anyone's imagination.

"Lets keep this G-rated, Ino, I don't want anyone trying to take you from me now, do I?" Naruto said teasingly as he pulled off his dark orange shirt and handed it to Ino. She looked hesitatingly at the shirt. She hated the color orange, but then again she didn't want to go around with a clear shirt either, no matter how proud she was of her body. After a moment's deliberation Ino reached out and took the shirt, draping it over her. It went down to her knees. She'd never realized just how much bigger Naruto was, but now that she looked at him again she noticed that he must be about seven inches taller than her.

The day continued fairly uneventfully for all involved, with the exception of Naruto. He got detentions from two different teachers for walking around without a shirt on. Naruto tried to point out that he wasn't fat and that he wasn't hurting anybody, but the teachers wouldn't listen to him. Finally, the last bell rang, and Naruto went to the locker room to get dressed for wrestling practice, and his match with that annoying freshman kid who seemed to think he was God.


	11. Intermission

Hey all

Look, I'm sorry I've been slackin on my updates. I decided that I should take a poll for the next couple chapters. I know so many other authors have done this, but whatevs, right? Right. It's not really a poll, but more of an idea pool. If you want something to happen in the story, leave me a review, and if its good, I just might use it. Also, if you have anything else you wanna say, go ahead, like any questions or any junk like dat.

K thanks

-Kent Coleslaw


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